HV 6457 
.177 



V 



y- >{<>}• -r£ . ~I> 










_4 




.0 





o Y 




5 S A. 








■j*x*£m ^ w „ 




.0 




n 



'i .1 



THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING 



WW 



BY 



ITS CAUSES AND EFFECTS 



ASA PHILI 

President of the Independent Political Council and 
Editor of The Messenger 



! 



THE REMEDY 



FT 



BY 



CHANDLER OWEN 

Executive Secretary of the Independent Political 
Council and Editor of The Messenger 



Cosmo-Advocate Pub. Co., 2305 Seventh Ave., N. Y. City 



AUSES AND EFFECTS OF LYNCHIN 

By Asa Philip Randolph 



To begin with, what is a lynching? 

Lynching, historically speaking, is a loose term applied to various forms 
of executing popular justice, or what is thought to be justice. It is the 
punishment of offenders by a summary procedure, ignoring and contrary to 
the strict forms of law. In short, the essence of lynching is that it is extra- 
legal. 

What is its history? 

In early Colonial days lynching had been practised. In the. eighteenth 
and nineteenth centuries the American population expanded westward faster 
than well-denned civil institutions could follow, and the western frontiers 
were infested with desperadoes who preyed upon the better classes. To 
suppress these miscreants, in the absence of strong legal institutions, resort 
was continually made to lynch law. We had instances of lynching in New 
England and the middle colnoies in the mistreatment of the Indians and 
the wanton disregard of the laws protecting them. Of course, it must be 
remebered that it was not until 1830 that lynching was associated with and 
connoted killing. There was a custom in various colonies of administering 
summary justice to wife-beaters and idlers. The acts of the Regulators 
of North Carolina in 176T-71, the popular tribunal of the Revolutionary 
period, when the disaffection against Great Britain weakened the authority 
of civil gOA*ernment at a time when the hostilities between Patriots and 
Tories were an incentive to extra-legal violence. In the South lynching was 
long employed in dealing with agitators, white and black, who w T ere charged 
with inciting Negro slaves to riot. The Ku Klux Klan, the White Cappers 
and Red Shirters applied the lynch law. It is, typically, an American institu- 
tion, though Russia and southern Europe have practised it. So much then 
for an historical survey of lynching. 

Now, then, the next question which logically arises is: What are its 
causes? And this question is timely, and in point, in view of the utter lack 
and direneedof information by the American nation on this vital question, 
big with social interest and dangers for the entire country. 

All of us are agreed that lynching is wrong, that it is a crime and that it 
ught to be stopped; even our Southern white brothers are beginning to see 
"\s ; but few of us have very carefully and critically examined into the 
\esof and remedies for this social phenomenon. And, yet, scientific method 
es that before prescribing for any disease, whether physical, mental or 
\a cautious 'and scientific inquiry should be made into the cause of the 
Because in order to understand how to eradicate the effects, you 
\w the cause of said effects, and proceed to remove the cause. To 
\^ community is situated beside a swampy marsh where poisonous 



2 



vapors hover over the putrid, pestiferous, standing waters, and where various 
aisease germs and mosquitoes infest. 

c The people of this community suffer continually from malarial fever, 
scientists have determined that the mosquito is a carrier of malarial germs. 
Now, is it not logical to assume that the swampy marsh is the cause of the 
malady and the mosquito but the occasion, and in order to wipe out the 
effects it is necessary to remove the cause of the occasion— the marsh? 

, Then, this is no less true of lynching than of any other disease or social 
evil, such as child labor, white slavery, intemperance, poverty and criminal 
acts in general. 

For clarity of exposition I shall divide the causes into -two classes, viz. : 
the indirect or final cause and the proximate, direct or efficient cause' 

Now, before proceeding to build our structure of ithe true, positive causes 
of lynching, we shall do the excavation work of clearing away the debris of 
alleged but fallacious causes. 

First, it is maintained by some that race "prejudice" is the cause. But 
the falacy of this contention is immediately apparent in view of the fact that 
cut of 3,33? persons lynched between 1882 and 1903, there were 1,192 white 
persons. 

Second, it is held by others that "rape" of white women is the real 
cause. Again this argument is untenable when it is known that out of 
the entire number of persons lynched only 34 per cent, can be ascribed to 
rape as the cause. 

Third, still others contend that the "law's delay" is the controlling 
cause. This also is without force when the fact is known that men have 
been lynched after they have had (their day in court and despite the fact 
that they (the accused) were convicted or acquitted. Leo Frank is an instance 
in proof. Thus much for what are not some of the causes of lynching. 

We shall consider now the real and .positive causes of this evil. There 
are three cardinal reasons, viz., the economic, political and social. 

First, what are the economic causes? By economic causes, I mean 
material gains which are the motor-forces of individual and social actions. 
For instance : A Jewish and an Irish lad were fighting and they were calling 
each other all kinds of humiliating names. Presently, 'along came two 
passers-by who speculated as to the cause of the fight, giving various re- 
ligious and sentimental reasons. But upon inquiry they were informed by 

the Irish lad that the d Jew had his foot on his nickle. Thus you see, 

not race nor religion ; but the crass, materialistic, economic factor — the nickle 
— was the sound reason for the scrap. 

As to our first proposition, the economic cause. I maintain that the cap- 
italist system is the fundamental cause of lynching. By the term capital- 
ist system, I mean, in short, the exploitation of human labor-power and the 
natural resources of the country for private profits. 

This is a system under which the tools with which the laborer works and 
the raw material upon which he works are owned by private individuals. Now 
our capitalist system expresses itself in different forms in different sections 
of the country. 1 For instance, in the East manufactories, railroads and steam- 



ships are the paramount economic factors ; in the West, mining, railroads and 
steamships, and in the South cotton plantations, lumber mills, turpentine, 
and railroads. The banking institutions of the South, which extend the 
loans to poor white and black farmers, are the channels through which the 
commodities of the industries find their way to their local, national and 
world markets. Out of these industrial arrangements have grown certain 
socio-economic conditions, namely, peonage, the crop-lien system, tenant- 
farming and peasantry, which are the more immediate causes of lynching. 

First, what is peonage? Peonage is a system of serfdom, the principle 
of which is, that if an employee owes his master he must continue to serve 
him until the debt is paid, the only escape being that if another employer is 
willing to come forward and assume the debt" the employee is allowed to 
transfer his obligation to the new master. In practice the system amounts 
to vassalage, inasuch as the debt is usually allowed to reach a figure which 
there is no hope of paying off. 

Now how is this system maintained? During the Reconstruction Period 
the Negro tasted and became intoxicated with the new wine of freedom and 
was loath to return to the farm, under conditions, in many instances, worse 
than slavery. Unsophisticated Negroes looked wistfully for the promised 
"mule aand forty acres." But lumber must be cut, cotton must be picked and 
turpentine must be dipped. In short, profits must be made. Negroes must 
work or be made to work, besides they must work cheaply. 

Thus the "black code" and vagrancy laws of the South. These laws 
provided for the imprisonment of all Negroes who had no visible means of 
support. The result is that, hordes of unemployed Negroes are hustled 
off to jail and the convict camps. Their fines are paid by the lumber, cotton 
and turpentine operators; they are assigned into their custody; put to work 
at starvation wages, besides being compelled to trade at the company's store, 
which prevents their ever getting out of debt. They are also compelled to 
sign certain labor contracts, the non-performance of which is proof presump- 
tive of fraudulent intent at the time of making it, which the state laws make 
a crime. And as a white planter himself tells the story: A planter can arrest 
a man upon the criminal charge of receiving money under false pretenses, 
which is equivalent to the charge of stealing; you get him convicted; he is 
fined, and being penniless, in lieu of the money to pay the fine he goes to 
jail; then you pay the fine land costs and the judge assigns him to you to 
work out the fine and you have him back on your plantation, backed up 
by the authority of the state. This is peonage. It is an economic system. 
Itjs maintained for profits. 

We pass next to the crop-lien system. The crop-lien system is the 
method of mortgaging the planted and unplanted crops of the poor farmers. 
It operates in th'is way : The poor farmers are in need of provisions until 
harvesting time ; the white merchants supply them for a part of their crop.— 
the share usually being so large as to keep— a perpetual lien on the farmers 
crops. Under this system the Negroes are fastened to the farms. 

The Negro farmer, being in debt, cannot leave. To escape is to violate 
a contract ; to violate a contract is to commit a crime which might result in 
being remanded to the convict camps or lynched. Next we shall consider 
tenant-farming, which is explained by its title. 



4 



Usually, however, the tenant-farmer has been a farm owner who, due to 
the crop-lien system, has lost control of the said farm. The next stage of 
the tenant-farmer is the farm laborer, which is the final goal of the poor white 
and black farmer in the South. Thus an economic system which makes 
peasants out of the Negroes and poor whites. In the South a peasant is 
an object of reproach, the sc-m — the flotsam and jetsam of society. They 
are illiterate, morally depraved and physically broken. The fruits of this 
system are prejudice, jim-crow, segregation and lynching. Banking institu- 
tions and loan agencies supply the money for the maintenance at rates of 
interest as high as 60 and 100 per cent on the dollar. 

Negroes don't protest or resist because they are intimidated and cowed 
by lynching bees. Negroes and poor whites don't unite — unite against a 
common exploiter — because race prejudice exists and is artfully cultivated to 
keep them apart. The weapons of capital in other parts of the country are : 
The state militias, secret-detective-strike-breaking agencies, religion or 
nationality. So that in the East and West we have our Bayonne, West Vir- 
ginia and Ludlow, and in the South we have our Waco and Memphis 
horrors. Of more recent date we have the East St. Louis massacre, the 
cause of which is fundamentally economic. Negro laborers were imported 
into the above-named place to work. They were either imported to take 
the jobs of white workers or to ! increase the supply of labor, and thereby 
force down wages. This was the real cause of the conflict. 

This is similar to the principle of picketing by labor unions. White 
laborers will not only shoot down Negro laborers but also white laborers 
who are imported by capitalists to take their jobs or lower their wages. Such 
is the history of the labor movement in this country. Negro laborers would 
do the same thing if they were in the white laborers' places. 

We might as well meet the big, bald fact that self interest is the Supreme 
Ruler of the actions of men. The reason does not lie in race prejudice, but 
in the class struggle. Blame your capitalist system. Of course, this does 
not justify or expiate the crime ; it simply explains it. Certainly the culprits 
should be brought to justice. We also have had a race riot in London, the 
roots of which go back to our capitalist system. The association with white 
women was but the occasion, of the London race riot. 

We come now to the political cause of lynching. The "black code" and 
vagrancy laws, whose purpose I have aforementioned, were enacted by white 
men who, through political activities, gained their places in the legislative 
halls of the state. The laws which make the non-performance of labor con- 
tracts a crime are placed on the statute books by certain anti-labor and inci- 
dentally anti-Negro politicians. The sheriffs of the counties into whose 
custodv Negroes charged with criminal acts are placed, are nominated and 
elected' by political parties. The parties are controlled by certain financial 
forces which lend money to poor white and black farmers at extortionate 
rates of interest. The lumber mills, cotton and turpentine interesst, big 
depositors of the banks, shape and control the policy of those financial insti- 
tutions. The political parties respond to the pressure of finance ; the repre- 
sentatives of the parties (not the people) in the legislative bodies, respond 
to the parties and hence we have our anti^Negro, anti-labor legislation in the 
South/ Political parties in the South, as in the North, are extra-legal 
organizations compos ed~oTcitizens \\mlTare" controlled by moneyed interests. 



5 



So that when a mob demand a Negro in the custody of a sheriff nominated 
and elected by a political machine whose campaign funds are made up by 
the banks and loan agencies which lend money to poor whites and Negroes 
at usurious rates of interest, you can realize and appreciate the result, the 
manner in which the said sheriff will act. Self-interest is the controlling 
principle of an individual's or a community's action, unless the actor in question 
is either ignorant or insane. Thus a sheriff can always be expected to act 
in the interest of those who have the power to remove him from his place. 
Not until von shift the seat of political control can you depend upon those 
in authority to act differently. No sane man can be expected to act against 
his own interest. We can no longer depend upon the "good man" theory. 
It has long since been exploded. W e have got to adopt a system which will 
make it unprofitable to be otherwise. Now, the Republican and Demo- 
cratic parties in the South are controlled by the same money forces. They 
are a bi-partisan machine which reflect the policies and interests of the 
paramount economic forces there — cotton, railroads, turpentine, lumber, and 
the bourgeoisie merchants. In the East and West these parties reflect the 
policies andi interests of oil, steel, coal., railroads and manufacturing. 

Another political course of lynching stated negatively is, disfranchisement, 
whose tentacles, like a mighty octupus, strangle the voice of protest in the 
throats of the common people. Intelligent Negroes are without voice, not- 
withstanding the fact that they pay taxes. Moreover, but one-third of the 
whites of voting age vote in the South. Evidentlv the uncrowned financial 
kings of the South find it more advantageous to rule by an electoral minority 
because it can be more easily bribed and 'handled than a large mass of voters. 
Again, too often, has a young white man's political promotion depended 
upon his scurrilous harrangues against the Negro. 

We come now to the social causes : The press, the church, the school 
system and the propinquity of the races. First, how has the press caused 
lynching? The Southern press has been controlled by the regnant eco- 
nomic forces in the South. Their editorial and news policies have been so 
adjusted as to suit the Southern plutocracy. Here, again, it is apparent that 
he who controls the bread and butter will also control and shape the ideas. 
Newspapers like the Atlanta Georgian have carried such headlines as: "A 
Subject for the Stake," "Lynch the Brute," "Lynch the Wretch." During 
the Atlanta Race Riot, September 22, 1906, the Atlanta Evening News car- 
ried inflammatory headlines which fanned the fires of race prejudice. 

Second, the church is the recipient of large contributions from the finan- 
cial rulers of the South and naturally preach the Christianity of profits. 

In very truth the beneficiaries of a system cannot be expected to destroy 
it. Hence, the Methodist Church split over the issue of slavery _ (which 
was an economic question pure and simple) into North and South, in i860. 
The Church of the South prayed and preached for the victory of the_ cotton 
kings. The church of the North blessed and anointed the industrial capitalists. 

Third, the most important social institution in the South is controlled 
by legislators who are controlled by political parties which are, in turn, con- 
trolled by financial lords who regard it safer and more profitable to keep 
the common people, white and black, in virtual ignorance and superstitutipn, 
because ignorant people don't strike for higher wages and better working 
conditions. So that the school terms, in some parts of the South, last for 



6 



only three months. The educational appropriation of the Southern states is. 
he lowest paid of any section in the country. The slave states appropriate $2.22 
for each Negro pupil per year and $T 92 for each white. 

This but indicates the low social state of both races in the South. 

Fourth, the propinquity of the races in the South has, undoubtedly,., 
operated to accentuate the feeling of race prejudice. 

This doubtless is due to the extreme oppositeness of physical character- 
istics. Of course the racial differences are not a cause, but an occasion for 
race strife. The social mind of the South is the product of a peculiar 
environment. For instance, the social heritage of slavery and the Recon- 
struction Period still rankles in the bosom of Southern society. And the 
attack by a Negro upon a white person, the doctrine that the Negro is a 
hewer of wood and a drawer of water; the Biblical citation of Canaan in 
proof ; the doctrine of the white man's superiority preached by political, 
religious and journalistic demagogues to the poor, ignorant whites ; the 
doctrine of the sacredness of the Southern white woman shown by the 
Southern white man's chivalry toward her in public conveyances, combined 
with the ignorance and superstitution of the common whites and blacks, have 
a tremendous psychological and emotional power in occasioning lynching. 
I say occasioning because the 1 ' cause lies deeper. They are the fuse. The 
magazine is the capitalist system. Most anything in the South may be the 
occasion of a lynching. It may be a "well dressed" Negro in country dis- 
tricts, the use of the word "yes" by a Negro to a white man, asking a 
white woman for the name of a street, the, fighting of a colored and a white 
boy, and the use of good English to white folks. A very conspicuous char- 
aceristic of he South is its hyper-sensitiveness. There still persists the duel 
Homicides are more numerous than in any other part of the country. When 
the sister of a young white, man or the daughter of a father is fooled by 
another white man, seldom is recourse made to courts, but the accused is. 
usually shot down like a dog in the open streets. 

The results are that the auto-suggestion of a community when it hears 
of a crime, is to form itself into a mob and to commit murder, burn human 
beings and raze houses until it has avenged the crime. The philosophy of 
the mob is, that present crime will avenge past crime, and prevent future 
crime, which, needless to say, history has shown to be erroneous. The effects^ 
are, that in some parts of the South a state of lawlessness exists and mob law 
invariably rules. Negroes, innocent and guilty alike, are hated, hounded and 
hunted by white men and women momentarily transformed into beasts. 
The educational system is demoralized. The pulpit, that erstwhile eminence 
of sacredness, is used as a promontory from which to hurl incendiary diatribes 
against the Negro. The press, that paladium of human liberties, is used as 
the channel through which journalistic adders vent their venomous spleen 
to poison the currents of public opinion. Political demagogues use the ballot, 
the mightiest of the ages, to fasten the fetters of disfranchisement upon the 
blacks and poor wmites. In the Southern South revenge has become the 
civic motive. And when such is the case a just proportion between crime and 
penalty cannot long be maintained, and every citizen, black and white, becomes 
exposed to the passions of the crowd. Penalty therefore ceases to be a 
curative of evil and becomes the instrument of hatred. Tiberious Gracchus 
would have rendered Rome a nobler service had he fostered only sound 

7 



motives of government, but he sougiht to avenge the wrong done his 
partisans rather than to correct them, he introduced violence into the 
elections, which started a flow of blood which made the land incarnadine 
and destroyed the very government he sought to save. When revenge 
became the motive in France liberty became the patron of crime and murder 
became a sport. So the terrible fruits of lynching must inevitably appear in 
the insecurity of the social order it claims to defend. Courts in the South 
have degenerated into a machinery for wreaking vengeance upon citizens, and 
the verdicts of juries are the passions of the mob instead of the voice of 
justice. Finally, the effect is that the civilized world looks upon American 
demo era cy as a mockery. 

The conditions are that white men and black men and white women 
:and black women are unconsciously treading upon tlbe crater of a social 
volcano whose molten lava of class passions, emotions and race hatred 
threaten to drench the land in blood; to wash away the dykes of our false 
civilization ; to sweep on in its course the derelict kings of capitalism and 
the slimy and poisonous germs of race prejudice and to erect upon the 
ruins thereof a new civilization, a new democracy, a new humanity, fortified 
and armed with universal suffrage and universal education. 



THE REMEDY FOR LYNCHING 

By Chandler Owen 



The causes of lynching, as we have been told, are economic, political and 
social. The causes-, here as elsewhere, suggest the remedy. The remedies for 
lynching are economic, political, social and legal. 

It is merely elementary that if peonage and wage slavery, reflected through 
the crop lien system, tenant farming, the lumber swamps, turpentine districts 
and the miserable commissary system which accompanies them, are deeply rooted 
as the causes of lynching, the removal or the considerable modification of those 
causes, is essential before lynching can be abolished. 

But the complex part of all is, how are peonage and wage slavery, with 
their concomitant evils, to be destroyed? And this directly carries us to find 
out how are they produced ? Peonage and wage slavery exist, wherever they 
exist, merely because there is a surplus of unskilled and unorganized labor. 
Where the supply of labor is greater than the demand, the employer can impose 
any wage he pleases upon the worker, and his heart is seldom any bigger than 
the barest subsistence by which the worker can be made a "semi-fit'' driving 
horse. So in the South there has been, and still is, a surplus of unskilled labor — 
both black and white. Since it is unskilled, it is unorganized, and often disor- 
ganized. I especially call attention to the "unorganized" condition of labor, be- 
cause there may be a considerable surplus of a thing at times, but if properly 
controlled a price may be fixed somewhat arbitrarily. Just as prices are extor- 
tionate when the land is filled with plenty, because those who control the supplies 
of certain goods corner them and only put upon the open market a supply about 
commensurate with the demand ; so labor, when organized, may have a surplus, 
but by the intelligent organization of such labor, the employed supporting the 
unemplo} r ed in their demands, it is possible to corner labor and also control the 
]#bor market. Hence the first step toward the abolition of lynching* is the 
destruction of peonage and wage slavery by the organization of labor so as to 
limit the supply put upon the market. 

But besides limiting the supply on the open market by cornering the com- 
modity, it is possible actually to limit or lessen the supply of labor just as it is 
possible actually to lessen the supply of food, clothing and houses. This is sure 
to create a demand and since it acts to that end automatically, even the ignorant 
and unskilled Negro will profit by it through sheer inability not to profit by it. 
Mobility of labor often accomplishes this end. For instance, if Boston needs 
2,000 carpenters and there are in New York 1,800 idle carpenters, the New 
York carpenter labor market can be made secure and stable by the moving of 
the 1,800 idle carpenters to Boston ; while in Boston their idleness here cannot 
act to prevent them from getting the full market demand. This is what we call 
adjusting the supply to the demand. 

A similar force just now is operating among Negroes. We call it the "migra- 
tion of Negroes." They are coming from the South, where they are a big 



9 



surplus, and going to the North, East and West, where they are sorely needed. 
Two years ago they could hardly get a job in the East or West at any price. Now, 
they have set their minimum wage at $2.50 per day and many of them are 
receiving from $3.50 to $12 a day. Why? Simply because they moved from 
where they were getting very low wages because of their very high excess in 
numbers, and came where they were not a surplus, w T hich makes it possible for 
them to command big wages. i 

This migration of Negroes, then, is the biggest force operating to-day toward 
the removal of peonage and its consequent evil — lynching. And this truckling 
advice which "big Negro" leaders are giving us about ''Stay South" is the most 
hypocritical, dishonest and dishonorable counsel which their bosses have ever 
hired them to give out. 

The migration of Negroes is neither in principle nor aim a whit different from 
the Spanish gold chasers who came to this country and South America. Negroes 
are chasing gold also. Their aim is not different from the Pilgrim fathers who' 
came to this country in search of liberty and freedom from oppression. Negroes,, 
too, are fleeing from the South's oppression and seeking liberty and freedom 
more truly than the Pilgrim fathers. The Irishman and the Italian came to 
this country in search of opportunity to work and to worship. The Negroes, 
are doing the same thing. The German came here in search of freedom and 
opportunity in a two- fold method or installment. Part of them came early and 
part after the unsuccessful revolution of 1848, when Germany revolted. The 
Negro comes North also in two installments like the German to this country. 

Part of them came early as settlers, slaves and workers, while the others 
coming now — came after their unsuccessful revolution of 1865— when they 
thought they were to be free. The Jew, cursed, maligned, spurned, spat upon, 
comes to this country for economic, social and political opportunity. He has no 
home, but becomes an integral part of all countries where money is in circulation. 
The Negro, too, cursed, maligned, spurned, spat upon, comes to the North and 
West for economic, social and political opportunity. He has no country, but 
becomes an integral part of wherever he settles. 

I cite these cases to show that migration — whether emigration or immigra- 
tion — is a legitimate and proper method of improving one's opportunity: All 
races have resorted to it. The fact that one crosses water has no bearing on the 
problem any more than my crossing the river to go to Jersey City to work. It 
is simply migration — leaving the place where you are to go where you feel you 
can better your condition. And when these "big Negroes" advise you not to 
migrate the}* are ventilating and displaying an ignorance of social laws and his- 
tory as dismal and inexcusable as their moral courage is spineless and maimed 
and small. 

This migration is the first great blow at lynching, hence the Southern legis- 
latures are interestedly discussing how to stop lynching so as to stop migration 
of their Negroes. A blow in a man's pocketbook can do what appeal to principle 
can never accomplish. 

So much for the blow at lynching by the destruction of peonage, through 
the organization of labor and the actual decreasing of its supply by movement 
from place to place. But this is only one of the elements in the social compound 
necessary to remedy the malady. The political pill comes next. How can politi- 
cal force be brought to bear? 



^uld 

To those who are so blatant about the necessity of reforms coming from 
within there seems to be no star of hope. Because they are met on the threshold 
of reform with the reply — "The Southern Negro is disfranchised," "He has 
no vote." "The politician cares only for votes," "How can he make his political 
power felt — when he really has none?" Superficially considered, the reply is 
good. It is true the Southern Negro has no effective vote. Politicians are not 
obligated to him. Quite true. 

But what about the Northern and Western Negro ? They can vote. Their 
Congresssmen can vote. We Negroes can make lynching an issue. We can 
question each candidate running on lynching and make him take some position 
or else knife him at' the polls, be he spineless Republican or spineless Democrat. 

Moreover, outside influence cannot be underestimated. The Negroes of the 
South desire lynching to be stopped. The Negroes of the North and West do too. 
The Negroes of the South -cannot help themselves politically even though they 
can move and help themselves economically. The Negroes of the North and 
West can vote ; they can help themselves politically and they can help their 
Southern brothers. It is their duty to help them. Every Negro who has come 
from the South should be preparing to register and qualify for voting. Every 
West Indian or foreign Negro should be naturalizing to use the sceptre of the 
citizen — the Ballot. That is how we Negroes in the North and West can help. 
And it is a big help. 

Just as in slavery time, the Southern Negro was in bondage — in slavery — 
and could not help himself, but on the contrary had to till The fields which made 
it possible for the Confederate Army to stay on the battlefield and fight to keep 
the Negro a slave — so the Southern Negro to-day has to produce wealth at 
starvation wages for those who lynch him. But in slavery time the Negroes of 
the North and West rose 200,000 strong to help break the shackles of their 
fellows who were forced to fight against their own freedom ! And we Negroes 
of the North and West must rise one million strong with ballots 1 — not bullets — 
to crush out the horrible, dastardly and reprehensible disgrace of lynching. 

Nor is the principle or policy of outside help new. Douglass was able to 
arouse public opinion of the North and West when death would have greeted 
his speech in the South. Douglass was able to arouse opinion in England, when 
a decent hearing could not be had in Massachusetts. And it was largely through 
him that the aroused public opinion of England kept that government from recog- 
nizing the South, when such recognition would have firmly established the insti- 
tution of slavery on the American soil. Also on this very question of lynching, it 
was Miss Ida Wells (Barnett), the colored editor of "Free Speech," published 
in Memphis, Term., who denounced lynching and attempted to organize public 
opinion abroad against it. The South became so aroused that numerous laws 
were passed against lynching, even in South Carolina and Alabama, and her 
paper was suppressed in Tennessee. If foreign criticism is so effective, how 7 
much more effective must be ballots, which are not foreign at all, but simply in 
another section of the country ! 

We next come to the social remedies for lynching. Chief among these are 
education, better living, such as housing, work, etc., and religious influences. But 
how is a Negro going to get the education? Well since he is demanding better 
schools for his children, if he is to remain in the South, theSouth is going to give 
him better schools to keep him there. If he gets more political power, he will 



1 1 



vote himself the schools or compel his representatives to do it, just as he did 
immediately after the Civil War, when he secured political power and introduced 
the first free public school system the South ever had. Education of Negroes 
and whites is a solvent key, for prejudice is born of ignorance and blind hate. 

Next, better living, housing, etc., will follow his increased wages, and 
increased wages will follow his increased education. It is seldom that we see a 
Negro of respectable attainments and living lynched. It is the Negro who 
unfortunately receives starvation wages, who is. ignorant, who has lost ambition, 
and who consequently is too often thrown into the bar rooms, the gambling dens 
and those cesspools of corruption and ruin, the sight of which would make blood 
rush to the face and tears to the eyes of any one who has the slightest regard for 
purity and Tightness of principle. That is no justification for lynching the Negro, 
but the provocations are multiplied for so doing. 1 

Lastly, religious influence. If the Negro ministers were not generally so 
spineless, if they had any foresight or even much hind-sight, being largely the 
leaders of the people, they could be of a tremendous influence in raising the 
social position of the masses. In the church education and information could, 
as it should be given out, in the place of the repetition of these dead creeds and 
spurious Bible verses. More punch and less prayer, more information and less 
inspiration, more culture -and less creed, more sense and less sermon, more good 
and less God, more life talk and less death talk, more this world and less the 
other world would directly redound to the interest of the people. Lynching 
could be brought prominently to view of white and colored through the pul- 
pit. And the colored pulpits might influence the white pulpit to take up 
the cudgel. It makes little difference whether the white pulpit 
even opposed the abolition of lynching (which it hardly would). The discus- 
sion of a thing tends to put people to thinking about it. And views are ex- 
changed which tend to sift and clarify themselves—finally and surely arriving 
at just conclusions. 

There are some things, of course, which will not remedy or help to remedy 
lynching. Among these is the mere piteous appeal. There are, to be sure, two 
forms of appeal which are useful — both of which are argumentative. Just as it 
was not possible to abolish slavery until a large number of white people were 
interested and affected by it, so it will not be possible to abolish lynching until 
the support of a large number of whites is secured. 

For instance, that which had most weight with the white man in slavery 
days was that no white man could get a decent job with a decent wage while 
Negroes worked free; just as unpaid convict labor to-day tends to destroy the 
possibility of labor's competition. So to-day so long as Negroes are in peonage 
it keeps the wages of white men down, because the problem of slavery is really 
the issue again. The white man can then be relied upon to help remove peonage 
and its consequent lynching. 

This kind of appeal has no sentiment in it. It is direct and straight to one's 
personal interest. Abstract altruism is unknown. We only help others because 
we are thereby benefited ourselves. And that is the only reliable appeal. 

There is another appeal to future possibilities and chance which has weight. 
The entire system of religion is built upon fear of future harm and hope of 
future benefit, and religion is deep in most men. Here then we can call attention 
to trip danger of the spread of lynching — its portent. The Negro was indifferent 
to lynching when nearly 800 white men were lynched. That was because he 



did not see that even though lynching affected only one race to-day, it would 
affect another to-morrow. Then lynching spread to Negroes as victims and 
gradually diminished in its effect upon whites. The pendulum is swinging again, 
and ten or twelve whites are being lynched a year now. You can show the 
white man the imminent possibility of its spread and secure his interest now. 
For just as the Negro is unsafe while the white man across the street has yellow 
fever, so the Negro with tuberculosis to-day may transmit one of the impartial- 
tubercular baccilli to the white man to-morrow. Disease germs know no color 
line. Neither do crime germs. And the Npgro lynched to-day may be the white 
man lynched to-morrow. This is sound argument and all men will give it an 
ear. But most people are not disturbed, even though a man is burned alive, so- 
long as they feel secure from such torture. 

And while lynching cannot be affected by piteous appeal, neither can it be 
affected by violence. Violence seldom accomplishes permanent and desired 
results. Herein lies the futility of war. The French Revolution achieved nothing 
for the French people until the Reign of Terror passed and cool, constructive 
work was done. The French government failed as lamentably in their attempts to 
force liberalism upon the people through violence as did the Spanish in their 
attempt to force homogeneity of religious opinion upon the people through the 
Inquisition. Both Protestantism and Catholicism failed with violence and pro- 
duced only atheists and agnostics by their efforts. Labor unions, too, have never 
succeeded in anything else except alienating sympathizers by violence. The 
human mind naturally resists all attempts to control it by violence. It requires 
argument, reason and persuasion — its natural food, just as the lungs require 
air and the stomach protein, fats and carbohydrates. 

It might be interesting to inquire into the motives of these violence' advisers. 
They belong to two classes. One is the honest class which, disgusted with lynch- 
ing, bitter with hatred and heated with hectic hostility, despaired and ignorant: 
of all remedy, while hasty (rightly) for a remedy, advises violence. 

Then there is another class, which likes to appear brave, daring, bold, for 
popular consumption. Some say, "Get bombs, nitro-glycerine, torch and guns." 
Some do not describe the method, but like Dr. Du Bois in an editorial in The 
Crisis of last October advise at long range, "The Negroes should have prevented 
that lynching, if they had killed every white man in the county and them- 
selves been killed." That is the talk here. But Dr. DuBois was in the 
South once teaching in one of the most lynching-disgraced sections of the coun- 
try — Atlanta, Ga. Moreover, twice as many Negroes were being lynched then as 
now. We do not recall at this time his having ever led an anti-lynching mob, nor 
do we recall his giving out such advice at the time, even though the lynching was 
more extensive, and especially in his own city of Atlanta. 

Judged in the light of reason, history and sound policy, such advice would 
not seem to emanate from a sane mind — not to mention a sincere heart. It is 
fortunate that the weight of such advice is always weighed by a safe instinct for 
safety by those who would suffer the evil consequences. 

Again, lynchings will not be affected by mass meetings and public demon- 
strations of parades, though these may be organized effectively. If adequately 
designed, not merely to denounce, but to stimulate registration and the organi- 
zation of votes for definite political action— such mass meetings and parades are 
of service. Otherwise they are forgotten in a few days, to say the least. 



( 



We fear too that a large delegation at the White House will not be effect- 
ive. A large delegation of voters, standing back home with votes behind a 
small delegation of men with the intelligence, courage and character to present the 
case, will be far more effective. Use the money .to be spent in the transportation 
of the large delegation for the dissemination of sound political and social in- 
formation. 

We are often told that a Negro is lynched for the usual crime, i. e., rape. 
If that were true it would be logical for leaders to address their attention to 
the abolition of rape as the cause of lynching, in order that lynching might be 
abolished as the consequence. For good or ill, however, rape is not the only 
cause of lynching. Dr. James Cutler of Yale, in his book on ''Lynching,'' says 
that "only 34 per cent, of all lynchings have been occasioned by attempted, 
alleged or actually commited rape." So that even if it were true thai raping 
was the cause of lynchings it would account for only 34 per cent, of them, 
and we would be still laden with 66 per cent, of the injustice and disgrace. 

But just as economic, political and social reform cannot be left entirely 
unaided in other fields, they cannot be left alone to do their work in the abolition 
of lynching;. To reach a field so broad and extensive, the arm of the law is 
needed. We are not sufficiently near the miilenium to trust all men to do the 
right thing. Unfortunately some still have to be restrained and others punished. 

It may rightly be said that we have a plenty of law now. What is needed 
is law enforcement — honest administration of the law. The states have laws 
against murder, homicide, manslaughter and conspiracy, sufficient to send to 
the chair or gallows every lyncher. Communities may be sued under the laws 
of most of the Southern and Western States. Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, South 
Carolina and Mississippi have laws which give the legal representatives of the 
lynched victim power and right to sue the county or city for large sums of 
money; in most cases not less than $1,000 or $2,000 and not more than $10,000 ■ 
in some cases. Negro families have recovered as high as $5,000 and been paid 
in South Carolina. 

Then, too, there are laws which would remove the sheriff if a prisoner is 
lynched — without regard to his negligence or responsibility. The legal representat- 
ives of the lynched victim, in some states, may recover from the county where 
the victim was in custody, and that county may recover from another county into 
winch the victim may be carried off and -lynched. This is done to stop evasion 
and fraud. ... 

The much talked of Federal law against lynching is of some value, but the 
loopholes have seldom been discussed by the Negroes, at least, who so glibly 
talk about it with an air of cocksureness. The Federal law is especiallv thought 
of as a higher and more honestly administered law ; and that is true. But either 
in Federal or Sta.te jurisdictions, the prejudiced communities will sit as jurors. 

No, say the amateurs. We shall have change of venue. But change of 
venue, it must be remembered, will not be so favorably considered by the authori- 
ties, because that is a recourse usually taken by the defendant for his advantage, 
namely, in order that he, the defendant, may get a fair and impartial trial. In 
the proposed cases the lvnchers, not the lynched, will be the defendants. There- 
fore, the plaintiffs would be asking a change of venue because of the greater 
probability of convicting the defendant. The courts would not be inclined to 
give ear to this plea. 



P 0 - L A 5 



14 



! But even if overriding the blandishments of local prejudice, venue should 
be granted, unless well stipulated — and rather exceptionally too — tlie cliange 
would be futile. For the general group of lynch-law states is so situated en bloc 
that the sentiment is sympathetic — about the same. And to try a man in Georgia 
for lynching a Negro in Florida would be merely beating the winds. 

Nevertheless, exceptional cases often require exceptional remedies, and J 
favor the government's prescribing such remedies. 

T favor a Federal law against lynching. 

Its penalty ought to be very drastic. 

It ought to remove automatically any sheriff whose prisoner is taken from 
him — without regard to his negligence or good faith. (This will remove all in- 
ducement for fraud and collusion.) 

It ought to bond the sheriff, with a provision therein that the bond is to go 
automatically to the victim's legal representatives upon the lynching of such 
individual. 

The County or City should be liable to the legal representatives for dam- 
ages automatically, without regard to negligence or intent. The policv of 
dispensing with intent or negligence is not new to the law, but is adopted 
in many cases because it tends to make every citizen interested in the enforce- 
ment of the law. It makes every citizen interested in the enforcement of 
right living on the part of his fellows, when each citizen suffers by his fellow 
citizen's breach of good faith. 

In order to check this lionizing of such negligent sheriffs, the law should 
make them ineligible for re-election to such office. 

If the prisoner is taken out of custody in one county and lynched in 
another, the legal representatives should be indemnified by the count}- Avhere 
the prisoner was in custody, and the county from Which the prisoner was 
taken should recover from the county in which the prisoner w r as lynched. 

Now the objects of both civil and criminal law are (!) to repair 
damages, (2) to deter from committing damages, and (3) to punish for violations 
of the law. 

All three methods are effective. 

Punitive measures are needed to override the present daring defiance of, 
and contempt for, the law. If a few lynchers were executed, I venture to say 
that this gentle chivalry of the United States would become very unpopular. 

Deterrent effects would follow the certainty of the law's strong arm. 
As all criminologists know, certainty of punishment is a greater deterrent 
than severity — >and more desirable too. Make the way of the transgressors 
hard and the arm of the law certain and strong, and you deal lynching a 
death blow. 

And, finally, when the taxpayers have to pay for fhese lynchings, they 
are going to stop the source of the expense. When the bonding companies 
give bond, they are going to protect their bonds. The counties don't want 
to pay out five or ten thousand dollars. The sheriff wants his position — his 
job. He needs the money. And, remember, that it is not cowardice, or 



15 



inability of the sheriffs to prevent lynchings that cause their prisoners to r 
taken from them. Not at all. It is simply their sympathy with the mol 

p .But sympathy goes aflying when the sheriff has to pay $5,000 for sympath 

"••He always sympathizes with his pocket-book most. 

Lynching must go. It is going. It is growing less. But we shall u.y 
cease to cry out against it until it is all gone. So long as there is a gem 
left, the body of our republic is not safe. No one within it is safe. It is the 
Negro to-day. It is the white man to-morrow 1 . It is John Jones, a Negro, 
this week ; it is Leo Frank, a Jew — and a rich Jew — next week. It is for rap( 
to-day ;it is for talking impudent to-morrow. 

It has Avormed its wicked way into the heart of xAmerica and it is 
eating out her very soul. It is bolstered up by race prejudice. It is fostered 
by poverty. It is augmented by ignorance. It is intrenched in peonage and 
wage-slavery. It is made prolific by disfranchisement. Segregation and 
discrimination fan the flame. 

Let all of America's good citizens — men and women — white and black 
— join in making this a land of common justice far our common country. 
A clean and thorough system of education to white and black boys and 
girls must be given. This is our duty. Race prejudice must be relegated. 
It is our national sin. Peonage must be replaced by an honest wage and 
wholesome living. All of us benefit by this. Rich and poor, high and low, 
black and white, must be accorded the right to select those who govern them 
and participation in the making of the laws by which they are to be governed. 
This is simple justice. Segregation and disfranchisement must be driven 
to the tall timbers and that obscurity and oblivion from which they ought 
never to emerge. Honest, fearless, courageous and intelligent Negro leaders 
must yet come, who, while free from bluster and brag, will coolly and seri- 
ously address themselves to the task of national and racial reconstruction. 

The task is big. The men are few. The service requires a good bit of 
sacrifice — a fund of intelligence and courage. Our present leaders have failed 
miserably. The New Negro now offers his services to the nation in the solu- 
tion of this great problem — the accomplishment of which is at once fraug'ht 
with bigness and consequence. It is a service as much to the white man as- 
it is to the Negro. Let no man fail in the performance of his full duty until 
this sublime and "devoutly-to-be-wisher]" achievement is attained in full! 



PAMPHLETS WILL APPEAR SHORTLY ON FORTY DIFFER- 
ENT AND VITAL SUBJECTS BY THE SAME AUTHORS. 
OPEN AIR LECTURES WILL BE DELIVERED EVERY SUN- 
DAY EVENING AT 8 O'CLOCK ON THE CORNER OF 132 ST. 
AND 7th AVENUE., NEW YORK CITY, BY MESSRS OWEN AND 
RANDOLPH. 

"LABOR UNIONS AND THE NEGRO." 
"BOOKER WASHINGTON AND Du BOIS." 
"SOCIALISM AND THE NEGRO." 

THESE ARE THE PAMPLETS SOON TO BE PUBLISHED. 

16 



4 °U 



I* 






\> c s * " ' O 



4 9* 





A 



5°^ 





if 



1JR 




v 



c e - c , ^ 







3> 







V 




A 





1* 



V 





o v « %y 

#^ ■ 

< & r- ° " • - . 
1* * 





V 



l* 1 




D J> c 0 " 0 * 






.0 





A 



4 €L 









1_> *<V <A 






A 0 < 







DOBBS BROS, -fc? * 

LIBRAW BINDING ^ 

ST. AUGUSTINE 




V 



FLA. 

MS, -» —* c ° N ° -9 ^ rv . u ' * 





